As a small streamlet flows along, it sometimes gets caught in the sands and cannot go further. It goes underground. In the same way, one’s life sometimes gets caught in the sands, and as it cannot go further it becomes a stagnant pool, giving out a bad smell; it is in an unhealthy condition.
This is true in all fields of life. Much more so is it true in religious life and therefore we should be much more on guard. It is truer in religious life because in that life we strive after perfection, we aspire to reach perfection. When we aspire to reach perfection, naturally we shall see our imperfections more clearly. The person who does not strive for any ideal does not know what is right or wrong.
If we have weaknesses, we should pray to God to overcome them.
It is quite natural that we should fall at some time in life and have hundreds of failures. But failures may become the pillars of success, at least in religious life. Indeed, religious life means the grappling with failures; in spite of all the obstacles one has to go on. And in religious life because we strive after perfection, imperfections come too much into our notice and into the notice of others. When a cloth is white, the dark spots are seen.
Perfection comes when we move towards it; imperfections do not go away when we take notice of them or hide them. We simply spend all our energy in fighting with the dark forces of life. Thereby, we do not get strength. We must have something positive to give us strength: we must commit ourselves to the source of all strength. Otherwise, all our energy will be spent in vain; not much result will come.
In Vedanta it is said that we carry our past deeds with us. If one has done many dark deeds in one’s past life, one has to pay the price for those and the struggle is greater. But that does not mean that life is a failure. We can improve, no matter how impure we may be. However many imperfections we have, we can remove them.
The Gita answers that even a person who is considered to be the most wicked, the greatest villain, will get perfection in a trice, if one thinks of the Lord with earnestness. All darkness will go away at once. It is said, if you strike a match in a room, which has been dark for thousands of years, it will at once be lighted.